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SPEECH 




OP 



MR. WICK, OF INDIANA. 



ON THE 






OREGON QUESTION. 



DELIVERED K V,^ 



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N THE HOUSE OF REPRESS NT Afhif y t! S, 

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APRIL 16, 1846. 




'■'^^•fV/K. 



WASHINGTON: 

PRINTED AT THE UNION OFFICE. 

1 846. 



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SPEECH. 



iln the House of Representatiees, ^pril 16, 1846 — 
On the bill to provide for the protection of the 
rights of American settler? in the Oregon terri- 
tory. 

The House being in Committee of the Whole on 
the state of the Union, 
Mr. WICK addressed the committee as follows: 
Mr. Chairman: When, on a former occasion, I 
addressed the Committee of the Whole House on 
the state of the Union upon the notice resolutions, 
I declared it to be my purpose to speakj not "to the 
country," as is the custom here, but to the House, 
and to the House only. On this occasion I would 
willingly speak to the House, if the House were 
here; but as it (the House) is not here, but has 
gone to the other hall to be "in at the death" — to 
witness the falling of the curtain at the close of the 
notice drama enacted there — I am not so certain but 
that I will, for once, follow the fashion, and speak 
"to the country," from the hall of legislation. I 
am the more inclined to take this course, because, 
upon the occasion to which I have alluded, I avoid- 
ed the discussion of certedn topics of a delicate na- 
ture, concerning which I would have been glad to 
have spoken the voice of those I represent. I al- 
lude, sir, to topics involving our title to or in Oregon, 
the course of diplomacy pursued, and proper yet 
to be pursued, in reference to the recognition thereof 
by the President, and the natural results of the le- 
gislation recommended by the Executive. 1 thought 
then that it was in bad taste to discuss those topics 
here, or in the other hall, except in secret session, 
upon the consideration of a treaty; and I have not 
changed my opinion. But, sir, since then these 
delicate subjects have been rudely brought into the 
halls of Congress, and literally tomahawked into 
shreds. This nation has not a single diplomatic 
secret which imprudence here could disclose; and 
the rudest efforts have been unsuccessfully made to 
drag forth and expose the opinions and intentions 
of the Executive. 

Those opinions and intentions have been guessed 
at or inferred; every gentleman guessing or inferring 
le suit himself; and the result of those guesses or in- 
ferences have been openly proclaimed in the face of 
the country and the vorld. Sir, so far as lay in the 
power of members of Congress, the mostdclicate mat- 
ters of national interest have been placarded upon the 
■walls, and a gaping world has looked on in wonder 
at the indiscretion. Subjects have been openly 
heralded which the interests of the country require 
should be left in hands where they could be deli- 



cately and shrewdly managed — in the hands to 
which the constitution has assigned them — I mean 
the treaty-making power — the President and the 
Senate, in secret session. Our title to Oregon has 
been lugged in, by the head and shoulders, to be 
questioned or depreciated, as might suit the taste, 
opinions, or feelings of speakers, till it has been 
spoken into the "glorious uncertainty" of a law- 
suit. The measures concerning Oregon, recom- 
mended by the Executive, have been arraigned as 
unwise, and as tending to produce a war, and the 
loss of Oregon as the result of the disasters and de- 
feats of that war. In the conflict of powerful minds, 
and yet more powerful wills, assuming to speak of 
the present opinions and intentions of the Execu- 
tive, things have been said which might lead the 
casual hearer or reader to infer that more of these 
opinions and intentions are known than the Execu- 
tive communications to Congress have disclosed, or 
that those communications are fairly susceptible of 
a duplicate meaning. 

Now, sir, I propose to speak briefly of our title 
to and in Oregon, to justify the action on the 
subject of Oregon both of the party to which 1 be- 
long, and of the Executive, and to defend the same 
against the charge of inconsistency and indiscretion, 
the action (or inaction) of this Congress only ex- 
cepted. 

Weak as well as mischievous minds often delight 
themselves in finding profundity where all is plain 
and easy; marvels where all is common; intricacies 
where all is straight; in dreaming of, and making 
inferences from, imagined facts; in taking a meta- 
physical view of subjects to which common sense 
only is fairly applicable; and in converting ducka 
and geese, and such like cattle, into "witches, and 
warlocks, and lang-nebbed things." It is to that 
weakness, or to this perverseness, that is to be at- 
tributed much of what has been said, written, 
thought, supposed, believed, or imagined concern- 
ing Oregon, our title therein or thereto, and the ac- 
tion of the democratic party and of the Executive 
in reference thereto. [No one will imagine (of 
course) that I am speaking of what has been said, 
&c., in Congress on these subjects. lam speaking; 
of things which have been said, &c., in a very un- 
parliamentary and uncongressional sort of way.] 

To attain my object, I need only give a statement 
of facta. A "plain tale" will "put down" all cav- 
illers. 

God gave Oregon, together witn the rest of the 
world, to man. In process of time, a church digai- 
tary resident at Rome came t» be recognised by all 



1} 



Christian naiione u God's vicertffcnl on earth, and, 
as such, authorized to convey and grant portions of 
the earth, unoecupied by any Christian nation, at 
his pleasure. He granted Oregon to the king or 
kingdom of Spain. I will not pause to question or 
establish the power of this dignitary to make the 
grant, his sufficient that such power was then 
recognised by Great Britain, who profited 
thereby, and took Ireland under a similar grant, 
and acquiesced in the grant of Oregon to Spain. 
This estops that power from oojecting; for 
the validity of grants made by this dignitary, and 
his sole right to partition out the worM was not con- 
tested, until that king of England, who, because of 
his remarkable piety and exemplary character — he 
not having been famous for wickedness, except the 
small vices of adultery and wife-murder — he was a 
connoisseur in wives — and perhaps a small matter of! 
fratricide — was declared defender of the faith; and, | 
because the Pope would not allow him to kill I 
another wife, he set up a kind of "opposition line" 
in the religious world, and was declared (or de- 
clared himself) head of the church, and assumed 
the right to make grants of portions of the earth to 
himself. 

Spain was in the occupancy of Oregon, (at Noot- 
ka.) A succeagor of that king of England already 
designated tortiously, unlawfully, and with force 
and arms — as the lawyers write it — entered upon 
this possession of Spain, probably on pretence of a 
grant to himself and his successors, made by the 
aforesaid English monarch. Spain "threw herself 
upon her reserved rights," 8uid, without much cere- 
mony, retook Nootka. This was enough for Eng- 
land. With that common spoiler of Gods earth, 
that universal depredator upon the rights of nations, 
whose benevolence is proclaimed by itself in tirades 
againEt domestic slavery, as it exists directly and 
avowedly in the United States, and is written m In- 
dia in the blsod of a hundred nations swept from 
existence — in China in the blood of her sons fight- 
ing to defend themselves against the invasion of 
a poisonous drug which was forced upon them 
that British commerce might fatten and thrive — 
in her own home dominion in a code of laws 
the result of which is slavery, not the less ab- 
horrent to God and man that it is accomplish- 
ed by fraud, and is indirect in form — and every- 
where, in a thousand acts of arrogance, cruelty, 
and wrong — I say, with that power, a forcible en- 
try, or a fraudulent one, is material out of which 
to begin a title, to be perfected by diplomacy, or by 
force, as circumstances m,iy require. A treaty was 
forced upon Spain, in virtue of which England ac- 

auired the acknowledgment of her right to occupy 
regon jointly with Spain. In this attitude of af- 
fairs, the United Stales purchased the right of 
Spain, and superadded, as to the valley of the Co- 
umbia river, tho inchoate title resulting from the 
discovery made by Captain Gray, and the explora- 
tion of that valley by Lewis and Clarke, and the 
expedition under their oimmand. Of course we 
purchased the territory subject to the incumbrance 
created by the treaty of joint occupancy made by 
England with Spam. This incumbrance is more 
serious as • difficulty in our title than if it were held 
bv a nation less aggressive and arrogant than is 
England. A somewhat similar incumbrance was 
recogniseil, and continued by treaty, on our part, 
with England, made in 1B18, and again in 1827, ex- 
tended till one party or the other should give a 
year's notice of its abrogation. Thus the matter 



rested until the meeting of the democratic conven- 
tion at Baltimore, in 1844. in the mean time, Brit- 
ish subjects had occupied "all of Oregon," as they 
had an untbubted right to do under the treaty, as a 
hunting and trading ground, and position, and had 
added to their trading establishments detached [agri- 
cultural positions, which they occupied \/ithout 
question on our part. Our citizens, in great num- 
bers, had also emigrated to Oregon, and made corn- 
pact agricultural settlements upon the Columbia and 
Willamette. They had signified their desire that 
our laws should be extended over them, and look- 
ed to us to secure them in their possessions, as 
well against all others, as against the Indian tribes. 
The convention, with an eye as well to national 
policy and right as to the just claim of our fellow- 
citizens in Oregon, asserted our title thereto, and 
called the attention of the people to our rights and 
interests there, as to a "great American question." 
The convention asserted that our title to Oregon 
was clear and unquestionable; and he who was de- 
signated by that convention as the democratic can- 
didate for the presidency, having been called to 
the chair of State, repeated the declaration in a 
manner for which he and the democratic party are 
responsible. 

Subsequently, in the course of negotiation, the 
Executive, to secure peace, and having as induce- 
ments the extinguishment of the incumbrance upon- 
our Oregon title, and operated upon by the moral 
force of propositions previously made by his pre- 
decessors in the chair of state, offered to divide the 
territory of Oregon with England by extending the 
line between the United States and Canada, upon 
the 49th degree of latitude, to the Pacific ocean. 
This proposition was refused by the British minis- 
ter, and tnen withdrawn by the President. 

This action of the convention, and of the President, 
instead of receiving, at the hands of our political op- 
ponents, that liberal consideration which a common 
American feeling ought to beget, and which invari- 
ably, in the British Parliament, upon the discussion 
of similar external and patriotic questions, analo- 
gous to this Oregon question with us, brings the 
sternest opponents of the administration to the 
standard of the minister and of the country, has 
been the subject of much illiberal criticism and un- 
merited reproach. It has l:een represented that the 
convention and the President, in saying that our 
title is clear and unquestionable, hav<? saia too much; 
for that the same is encumbered by the English 
right of joint occupancy for commercial purposes, 
and by the English claim to Oregon; for be it re- 
membered that, upon the footing of the forcible en- ' 
try upon Spain, of which I have spoken, and of 
the commercial occupancy, sorured by treaty, as 
well also because of tne contiguity of Oregon to the 
British possessions in America, and other pretences 
less formidable than these, the British government 
has set up a claim to Oregon, or part thereof. I un- ' 
derstand the claim to be made to all that they can 
get, by any means of fraud or force which a grasp- 
ing policy may dictate, without specification of ' 
metes and bounds. ' 'V 

Let us examine this criticism of our opponents." ' 
Give to the assertion of tho convention reiterated 
by the President, a conHtruction sanctioned by com- 
mon parlance, and what is its scope? Does the 
holder of a fee simple, in common parlance, hold 
his title to be otherwise than clear and unquestion- " 
able, because it is incumbered by a right of way, or 
other privilcgtj? Does he hold it to bo other than 



clear and unquestionable, because someone, without 
right, sets up a claim to iL> Surely not. And yet a 
right of way is an incumbrance; and a claim is a 
quasi incumbrance, because it slanders tht' title. 

It was but the other day that, in this d iscussion 
the honorable member from Tennessee, [Mr. 
Brown,] by a strange perversion of the \vords and 
meaning of his colleage, [Mr. Johnson,] represent- 
ed that colleague as having, in some sortj admitted 
that the declaration of the President as tO' our title 
to Oregon, and his act in offering, as an adjustment, 
a division of the territory upon latitude forty- 
nine, were inconsistent the one with the other, 
and that the declaration was made to please the 
democracy, and the act done to please th e whigs. 
And by a peculiar, and in a small waj', Kome- 
what ingenious adaptation of his own sentences, 
the honorable member [Mr. Brown] contrived 
to give the endorsement of his own judgment to 
this sentiment, so grossly imputed to his colleague. 
Verily this criticism of the honorable member 
smacks much more of the justices' court than of 
the equity forum. It savors not of the chancel- 
lor. What! James K. Polk shape his acts to 
gather golden opinions among or of whigs? Why, 
they did not know him. They asked who he was, 
and "held their manhood cheap" that perforce their 
"great embodiment" must soil his nobility by 
running on the same political course with this same 
James K. Polk. Does James K. Polk ejipect a 
whig pen to write his life and times? Does he, the 
advocate of State rights, of a strict con3tru<:tion of 
the constitution, and of trade unshackled by aught 
but taxation absolutely necessary for revenu e, and 
the firm opponent of bank monopolies, apjpeal to 
latitudinarians, federalists, protectionists, and! bank- 
ites to inscribe his epitaph and write his history? 
Sir, there is no discrepancy between the declaiations 
and acts of the President. Our title is clear and un- 
questionable; but it is incumbered, and it hai5 been 
slandered. Who recognised the incumbrance ? An 
Executive belonging to the same party of which the 
honorable gentleman from Tennessee [Mr. Bb.own] 
is a distinguished member — a party which, in pow- 
er, has brought upon our country more political 
evil in twelve years than the "progressive democra- 
cy" can remedy in the same period; and which, out 
of power, occupy their leisure and talents in com- 
bining with abolitionists, native Americans, iciprac- 
ticables, and all other fractions, factions, amd fig- 
ments, to defeat popular will and weal. Who slan- 
dered our title to Oregon, and taught Great ISritain 
tOxhope for a division thereof? A President cf the 
same party, who offered an adjustment more fei vora- 
ble to Great Britain than that offered by Mr. Polk. 
There is not a lawyer in this House but kno\j's the 
fatal effect, upon his cause, of an offer of compro- 
mise made by his client publicly in the court- yard. 
Bad as the proposed compromise may be, he is 
constrained, generally, to advise his client to lepeat 
the offer. His cause is slandered. So the IPresi- 
dent found our title to Oregon slandered by the offer 
of partition made by a precedent whig administra- 
tion, written down with the pen, and published to 
the world over the name of the "great embodim ent;" 
and he was constrained to repeat the offer. 

Others have hazarded not only indiscreet guesses, 
but also bold assertions upon the proposition wheth- 
er the President would now, or will hereafter, accede 
to an offer for adjustment by a division of the terri- 
tory upon latitude 49°, in a manner, and to ain ex- 
tent, which relieves me from all considerations of 



delicacy in reference to speaking to that point. Sir, 
American statesmen have, to the best of their abili- 
ty, eviscerated our republic of its last diplomatic 
secret on this subject. I also will guess, lest it 
may be inferred that I have a personal motive for 
being guarded on this subject, as it has been infer- 
red that others have been led by personal motives to 
indulge in surmises and declarations upon this most 
delicate topic. Prick up your ears, therefore; for 
the secret, as J understand it, is about to explode. 

I am about to guess, solely on my own judgment, 
and I am pretty sure that I shall guess rightly. The 
President does not know what he will do! Like other 
wise men, he holds himself up to be controlled by 
circumstances, and at liberty to carry out the be- 
hests of public opinion, as that opinion may be 
modified by time and circumstances. The last prop- 
osition for adjustment hy negotiation emanated from 
our side. The next, as I suppose, must come from 
the British side. Of course the President does not 
know what it will be. When it comes, iie will con- 
sider of it. Now, sir, we know that in this coun- 
try, public opinion is the ruling power. It there- 
fore becomes important to consider what public 
opinion is now, and how it may probably be modi- 
fied hereafter. The American people have a right 
to resolve to undertake a war in defence of that 
which they assume, (as they have a right to do,) 
to be theirs, and they may compromise disputed 
rights without dishonor. Public opinion, as indi- 
cated by the representation in the halls of Congress 
now, would not justify a war for that portion of 
Oregon between the parallels of 49° and 54° 40'. 
The number of those in this and the other hall, who 
would undertake such a war, is small indeed. A 
large majority of either branch of Congress would 
yield up that part of Oregon north of latitude 49°, 
in extinguishment of the incumbrance and claim 
held and made by Great Britain, and to secure the 
blessings of peace. But there is not one member 
of this or the other house, as T believe, who is 
not fully prepared and instructed to meetall.the haz- 
ards and disasters of a war, rather than yield our 
claim to any portion of Oregon south of latitude 
49°. My constituents are of those who are ready 
to undertake a war "for the whole of Oregon," nor 
will any vote or act of mine be adverse to this their 
will. They are my employers; I am but their agent. 
They understand that our right to all of Oregon was 
secured by the election of Mr. Polk, and the west- 
ern people generally so understood the matter. I 
understood "all of Oregon" to be one of the issues 
of 1844. But I now learn — no doubt truly — that 
the resolutions of the Baltimore convention were 
not so understood in other portions of the country, 
as well in the North and East as in the South. I 
have no means of knowing whether or not the 
President would now accede to a proposition 
from the British side of the same tenor with that 
heretofore made by himself But it is certain- 
ly true that the British government has a right to 
suppose that he would do so; and if that govern- 
ment desires peace, and offer for adjustment upon 
the basis of 49° as a boundary, will, in due time, 
emanate from it. If such a proposition be made, the 
President will consider of it. Public opinion, as 
now developed in this and the other hall, would 
sustain him m acceding to such a proposition, and 
would not sustain him in a war for 54^ 40', he hav- 
ing it in his power to adjust upon latitude 49°. The 
British minister has means of taking knowledge of 
public opinion here; and if he be as wise a man aa 



he 18 a gentlemanlike and good looking one, he will 
foresee, that if his gorernment desires peace, and to 
secure nearly half of Oregon to itself, Ine offer here- 
tofore repeatedly made, from our side, must be ac- 
ceded to by the British side during the existence of 
the Congress now in session. For this question is 
« progressive one, as all similar questions are, in a 
republic. In the next Congress 54 40 men will 
abound in this House, and by degrees the Senate 
will be conformed to public opinion as it progresses. 
My belief is, that the President will look to the 
halls of Congress as the exponents of public opin- 
ion. If he finds there a resolution to fight for 54° 
40', he will, 1 doubt not, take his stand accordmgly. 
If he finds there a disposition to secure peace, by 

f ridding a portion, I suppose he will act according- 
y. As the war-making and means-furnishing 
rower is not in his hands, out is vested in Congress, 
do not see how he can act otherwise than as I have 
Ftredicated. If, therefore, while the evidence of pub- 
ic opinion remains as it now is, the President should 
adjust the matter on the footing of the proposition 
heretofore repeatedly made, I shall not as.sume to be 
either his advocate or his denouncer before my con- 
stituents. They are his constituents, as they are 
mine. I beins their sole representative here, and 
representing them only, my duty is phiin. But 
the constituency of the President is manifold, and 
of tarious shades of opinion, and of diverse inter- 
ests; and tlure is danger of portions of it, incited by 
selfish and ambiiious men, becoming a little heady 
and self-willed. jMy constituents, I know, "like 
the man," and they are also for 54° 40'. I be- 
liere they will construe "Young Hickory" chari- 
Ubly. 

Of him, (the President,) in consideration of the 
difficulties of h-s position, (aggravated as those diffi- 
culties are by president-making instincts and ambi- 
tious designs,) ail I have to say is, "God send him 
a safe deliverance." The country will be more just 
to him than are "the politicians." 

Mr. Chairman, the bill under consideration is one 
of a series of measures recommended by the Presi- 
dent in reference to Oregon. Its object is to extend 
the laws of Iowa Territory over our citizens who 
have cm'graiid to Oregon, until the termination of 
the joint Ani'rican and British occupancy thereof, 
and afterwards irutcfinitcly. To terminate that joint 
OcciipHiicy, this House has passed the resolutions 
of notice. The Senate has occupied many weeks 
in coiiHuleriiig those resolutions; and it is under- 
stood that, in a liny or two, they will be returned to | 
this I^Iouse alined, \>u'., as 1 think, not utnrndcd. 1 | 
am prepared to believe that when a coiiinion-sense 
world shall compare the labor and time expended 
with the product, it will be ready to excluiin, '^Mons 
laboritur, jiroducUur mu5." 1 trubt that in some 
STailable shape those resolutions will finally pass 
both houses. But let iheir futc be what it may, this 
bill, after being (f I fected, ought to become n law. 
If the notice rescluiions are to be defeated by the 
efforts of madness and faction, it ia the more neces- 
sary Jthat our laws should be extended over our 
own citizens in Oregon; that emigration to Oregon 
should be encouraged by a promise of fluital>le 
g;ranls of lands to settlers; that to protect emigration 
to, and emigr.ints in, Oregon, and to overawe the 
Indian tribeji, forts rhould be erected, and armed, 
and manned, and Indian agcnnea estsbiiiilii "1, on 
the route to and in Oregon; and tkal n communica- 
ttoa with Oregon be secured by means of a mail- 



route. Such will be the effect of this bill with the 
pending amendments. 

But, sir, I am told by the honorable member from 
Pennsylvania, [Mr. J. R. Ikccrsoll,] in his speech 
to-day, that our government is in duty bound toad- 
dress a note to the British minister, expressive of 
its desire to adjust the Oregon controversy. Sir 
that desire hits been expressed in every com- 
munication from our government to the British 
minister. Why repeat it.' That an opponent of 
the present administration should thus cavil, ia not 
so wonderful. But when I h(ar so-called democrats 
(they are few in number, thank God !) say the same 
thing — when I see them captious as to forms of 
words, having no more meaning than the words 
"your very humble servant" at the close of a chal- 
lenge — when I find them stickling upon, truckling 
preambles and "parenthetical stickings in" in re- 
publican lcj;iolation, I acknowledge that my faith 
sometimes fails me. I sh.ill await further develop- 
ments before I make up my mind to believe allega- 
tions of "punic faith,"of a will to "rule or ruin," 
and of a desire to defeat ail legislation upon topics 
of public expectation, so as thereby to disorganize 
the democnitic party, and, from the elements of po- 
litical revolution, build up a local party, for the grat- 
ification of individual ambition. Sir, 1 will only be- 
lieve these things when I am compelled to see them. 
But I will say now, that if such things are, the 
American people will see and rebuke them. Those 
engaged in such projects, if such there be, will, in 
all time stand, with Milton's devil, "on a bad emi- 
nence." 

Sir, I have said that my faith sometimes fails me. 
I will tell you why. I hear gentlemen declare that 
they will cast their votes here to incur a war in de- 
fence ot our right to Oregon south of latitude 49°. 
The British government is authorized to suppose, as 
I have already shown, that an offer coming from 
that side, proposing latitude 4'J° as a boundary, will 
be accepted by our government. Now, if gentlemen 
are ready to fight for latitude 49°, and if the British 
government has a right to suppose, as 1 have said it 
has, why the necessity of stickling about forms of 
words.' Why is this bill, or the notice, in a simple 
and republican form, strif>ped of all verbosity, likely ' 
to be ofreiisive, or to produce war, when the British ' 
governm'vit has a riijht to .suppo.se the power in its 
own handa to end the entire controversy any day, 
or any hour.' The British government has a right 
to infer tint war ain be avoided by acceding to an 
adjustment upon the basis of latitude 49°; and there- 
fore, it'll reolly desires i.i avoid war, will make that 
propo.sitioii, without wailing for our action, to hunt 
for cause of offence therein. If the British govern- 
ment, on the contrary, desires war, to rub out old 
scores, nr to grasp Oregon south of latitude 49°, 
then tho3; genilemen who stand for latitude 49° are 
pledsjed to take part with us in the fight. The result 
IS, that those genilemen arc either snort-sighted, or ^ 
timid, ot that tlieir professions of willingness to •' 
fight for latitude 49° as a boundary, are insincere, ' 
and that, in point of fact they do desire to defeat ' 
the Amiiric^n claim to Oregon, to subserve a local ' 
interct. We in the West are not addicted to in- 
trixues, nnd we abhor it in others. We are watch- 
in» dev(jlopments. And if we should be forced to 
l)elieve Mrhat we now sometimes fear we shall, per- 
haps, any but little; but we shall understand our- 
selves, and o{ir friends. At present we are puzzled. 
Our weolern logic gives unfavorable results. We 
shall consider the logic of actions. Wc shall see 



whether great measures are to bei defeated for the 
sake of a form of words. We eu-eluot jealous. We 
are anxious. And we are resolTeJ not to be hum- 
bugged. I 

Mr. Chairman, I hasten to a cdnclusion. I have 
endeavored to answer the charge of a want of cohe- 
rence between democratic declarations and democrat- 
ic action, and to demonstrate that it is our duty to 
carry out the recommendations of the Executive, on 
the the subject of Oregon. It only remains for me to 
say, that our action ought to be prompt and speedy. 
The action of Congress, thus fir has been indeci- 
sive and hesitating — "like a W'Dunded snake drag- 
ging its slow length along." Tjie people are exam- 
ining the machinery of governtrient to find the hand 
that locks the wheels. They julstify the Executive. 
His recommendations have bejen apt and proper. 
The responsibility rests upon Uongress. The Presi- 



dent is, this day, more popular in many of our dem- 
ocratic districts than we orarselves are. The people 
will find the hand that locks our wheels. They 
will cut it off. 

My good constituents will read what I have said, 
and they will see at once that they may expect one 
of two events in the course of a year or two, or 
sooner — an adjustment of the Oregon controversy on 
the parallel of 49°, or a war. If the sentiments of 
their democratic brethren in the North, East, and 
South, and of the whia: minority, or a part thereof, 
should constrain the Executive to yield to such an 
adjustment, they will submit as I believe, though it 
may be reluctantly. Should war result, the Hoosier 
banner will flout the sky right saucily, and Hoosier 
squadrons will take their part in the danger, the 
loss, the suffering, and the glory. 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 



017 187 429 4 



